The latest problem facing the GOP: Massive embezzlement

After weeks of speculation regarding an accounting scandal at the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), the committee's chairman, today began to give GOP leaders an idea just how big the problem might be.

The NRCC says its former treasurer, Christopher J. Ward, likely made "several hundred thousand dollars in unauthorized transfers of NRCC funds to outside committees whose bank accounts he had access to, including joint fundraising committees in which the NRCC participated. He also appears to have made subsequent transfers of several hundred thousand dollars in funds from those outside committees to what appear to be his personal and business bank accounts."

Cole said the transfers go back several years, but the NRCC is still unsure how much Ward may have diverted from committee coffers.

"Those unauthorized transactions date back to at least 2004," an NRCC statement said. "The exact dollar figures are currently a moving target, and as the investigation progresses, it is entirely possible that these figures will change, either by increasing or decreasing. The forensic investigation has also noted numerous instances in which the unauthorized transfers were either not accurately reported, or were not reported at all, on FEC reports."

So far, the NRCC has decided to file a new disclosure statement for January 2008 stating that it has $740,000 less cash on hand than previously reported. The NRCC's actual cash-on-hand at the end of January was $5.7 million, not the $6.64 million the committee reported to the FEC.

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So basically, he picked the NRCC's pocket for over 10 percent of its budget. And he did it by faking audits:

The former treasurer of a Republican Congressional fund-raising committee may have stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars by submitting elaborately forged audit reports for five years using the letterhead of a legitimate auditing firm, a lawyer for the committee said Thursday.

Robert K. Kelner, a lawyer with Covington & Burling, who was brought in by the National Republican Congressional Committee to investigate accounting irregularities, said a new audit showed that the committee had $740,000 less on hand than it believed. Mr. Kelner said it was unclear whether that amount represented money siphoned off by the former treasurer, Christopher J. Ward.

Mr. Ward, who is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had the authority to make transfers of committee money on his own, Mr. Kelner said.

He said an investigation with the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers had â€œfound a pattern in which Mr. Ward would transfer funds by wire out of the N.R.C.C. to outside committees.â€ From those outside committees, Mr. Kelner said, money was then transferred to â€œpersonal and business accounts of Mr. Ward.â€

And how did he do this? Turns out the information was out there for just anybody to find, like Daily Kos did ... oh, about two years ago, although at the time they didn't know who Christopher J. Ward was or what they had uncovered.

Here's an interactive map of the Ward connections ... as Ben Bradlee once said, follow the money (or at least, the connections).

After weeks of speculation regarding an accounting scandal at the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), the committee's chairman, today began to give GOP leaders an idea just how big the problem might be.

The NRCC says its former treasurer, Christopher J. Ward, likely made "several hundred thousand dollars in unauthorized transfers of NRCC funds to outside committees whose bank accounts he had access to, including joint fundraising committees in which the NRCC participated. He also appears to have made subsequent transfers of several hundred thousand dollars in funds from those outside committees to what appear to be his personal and business bank accounts."

Cole said the transfers go back several years, but the NRCC is still unsure how much Ward may have diverted from committee coffers.

"Those unauthorized transactions date back to at least 2004," an NRCC statement said. "The exact dollar figures are currently a moving target, and as the investigation progresses, it is entirely possible that these figures will change, either by increasing or decreasing. The forensic investigation has also noted numerous instances in which the unauthorized transfers were either not accurately reported, or were not reported at all, on FEC reports."

So far, the NRCC has decided to file a new disclosure statement for January 2008 stating that it has $740,000 less cash on hand than previously reported. The NRCC's actual cash-on-hand at the end of January was $5.7 million, not the $6.64 million the committee reported to the FEC.

Click to expand...

So basically, he picked the NRCC's pocket for over 10 percent of its budget. And he did it by faking audits:

The former treasurer of a Republican Congressional fund-raising committee may have stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars by submitting elaborately forged audit reports for five years using the letterhead of a legitimate auditing firm, a lawyer for the committee said Thursday.

Robert K. Kelner, a lawyer with Covington & Burling, who was brought in by the National Republican Congressional Committee to investigate accounting irregularities, said a new audit showed that the committee had $740,000 less on hand than it believed. Mr. Kelner said it was unclear whether that amount represented money siphoned off by the former treasurer, Christopher J. Ward.

Mr. Ward, who is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had the authority to make transfers of committee money on his own, Mr. Kelner said.

He said an investigation with the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers had â€œfound a pattern in which Mr. Ward would transfer funds by wire out of the N.R.C.C. to outside committees.â€ From those outside committees, Mr. Kelner said, money was then transferred to â€œpersonal and business accounts of Mr. Ward.â€

And how did he do this? Turns out the information was out there for just anybody to find, like Daily Kos did ... oh, about two years ago, although at the time they didn't know who Christopher J. Ward was or what they had uncovered.

Here's an interactive map of the Ward connections ... as Ben Bradlee once said, follow the money (or at least, the connections).

And you actually think that if the Libbies get solid control of both houses that they won't do immediately what they did for 40 years prior and the Republicans unfortunately did for the time they had control of both houses - which is to continue to play politics? Sure you do. Fenian all but said it on another post when he wants to pull out the plugs on indictments against the, um, "opposition."

After weeks of speculation regarding an accounting scandal at the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), the committee's chairman, today began to give GOP leaders an idea just how big the problem might be.

The NRCC says its former treasurer, Christopher J. Ward, likely made "several hundred thousand dollars in unauthorized transfers of NRCC funds to outside committees whose bank accounts he had access to, including joint fundraising committees in which the NRCC participated. He also appears to have made subsequent transfers of several hundred thousand dollars in funds from those outside committees to what appear to be his personal and business bank accounts."

Cole said the transfers go back several years, but the NRCC is still unsure how much Ward may have diverted from committee coffers.

"Those unauthorized transactions date back to at least 2004," an NRCC statement said. "The exact dollar figures are currently a moving target, and as the investigation progresses, it is entirely possible that these figures will change, either by increasing or decreasing. The forensic investigation has also noted numerous instances in which the unauthorized transfers were either not accurately reported, or were not reported at all, on FEC reports."

So far, the NRCC has decided to file a new disclosure statement for January 2008 stating that it has $740,000 less cash on hand than previously reported. The NRCC's actual cash-on-hand at the end of January was $5.7 million, not the $6.64 million the committee reported to the FEC.

Click to expand...

So basically, he picked the NRCC's pocket for over 10 percent of its budget. And he did it by faking audits:

The former treasurer of a Republican Congressional fund-raising committee may have stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars by submitting elaborately forged audit reports for five years using the letterhead of a legitimate auditing firm, a lawyer for the committee said Thursday.

Robert K. Kelner, a lawyer with Covington & Burling, who was brought in by the National Republican Congressional Committee to investigate accounting irregularities, said a new audit showed that the committee had $740,000 less on hand than it believed. Mr. Kelner said it was unclear whether that amount represented money siphoned off by the former treasurer, Christopher J. Ward.

Mr. Ward, who is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had the authority to make transfers of committee money on his own, Mr. Kelner said.

He said an investigation with the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers had found a pattern in which Mr. Ward would transfer funds by wire out of the N.R.C.C. to outside committees. From those outside committees, Mr. Kelner said, money was then transferred to personal and business accounts of Mr. Ward.

And how did he do this? Turns out the information was out there for just anybody to find, like Daily Kos did ... oh, about two years ago, although at the time they didn't know who Christopher J. Ward was or what they had uncovered.

Here's an interactive map of the Ward connections ... as Ben Bradlee once said, follow the money (or at least, the connections).

And you actually think that if the Libbies get solid control of both houses that they won't do immediately what they did for 40 years prior and the Republicans unfortunately did for the time they had control of both houses - which is to continue to play politics? Sure you do. Fenian all but said it on another post when he wants to pull out the plugs on indictments against the, um, "opposition."

Hey, I wouldn't mind hanging every bastard that does this in the name of public trust. As long as we're consistent.

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OK. Name a Democratic equivalent to Mr. Ward.

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Well, I'd say the HRC campaign manager who burned through $120 or $130 million before Super Tuesday deserves to be in the conversation, even if what she did wasn't criminal. The people who gave the money might have a different opinion.